WEBVTT

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The prairie harvest millions of tons of

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grain taken from land where
once no wheat could grow.

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Our growing abundant helps to feed a
world that every year gets hungrier.

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Plant breeding has created the
crops of modern agriculture.

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And now new technology promises even greater
control over the plants we grow for food.

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We\'ve engineered our crops

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to suit a certain style of agriculture.

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Like the processing tomato from seed to

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improve its tailor-made to
fit into the ketchup OK.

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But aren\'t gigantic harvests
lacks something Bible.

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From the earliest times farming has relied
on a Crops own power to adapt or survival.

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Soil climate disease local conditions

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Shape the plants that grow here.

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These seeds are survivors naturally defended
against the risks of this environment.

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Now we\'ve taken over the defense of our crops
attacking head on the risks of disease.

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Whether insects.

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Often we lose in 1985 drove destroyed nearly
a billion dollars worth of prairie wheat.

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In 1970 15% of the entire American
corn harvest was lost to corn blight.

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No major crop is exempt.

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An epidemic of citrus canker devastated
Florida\'s orange groves in 1984.

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Tens of thousands of young trees were

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burned and the continents are
introduced went up in smoke.

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Prompt disasters like These
are the result of Monaco

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Miles of land planted into a single Chrome.

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Within the crop every plant
is genetically uniform.

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In the natural world
diversity is the key to

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survival but our crops have been
stripped of their defenses.

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Long ago in a few small
corners of the planet.

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The climate in the shape of the land

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Nurtured a rich diversity of plant
life in those favorite places.

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Human agriculture began.

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This harvest in Turkey comes from

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a long cooperation between humans
and the natural environment.

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For thousands of years farmers here have chosen
their plans for their ability to survive.

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From valley to valley even from field to
field the plants are genetically different.

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Selected over countless generations
and tested by the environment.

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They\'re adapted to local conditions.

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More than 10 thousand years
ago in this part of Turkey

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a great civilization was built
on the cultivation of wheat.

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And today in this countryside the harvest

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continues part of a long
and intricate evolution.

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Thousands of locally
adapted varieties of wheat

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developed here. They
look very different from

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each other because of their
different genetic makeup.

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Each is resistant to a wide
range of local threats.

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This diversity means they adapt
crossbreeding and mutating in

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the field producing new genetic
combinations new potential for survival.

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These local races of the
world\'s food crops have been

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the lifelong study of plant geneticist Dr.
Earn a Bennet.

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All those erases also cultivated plants
that have been grown by man in the villages

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In the mountains in the
valleys in the deserts and in

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a 100 or a thousand
different environments have

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over the course of the years
acquired adaptations to

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those environments have
acquired a wealth of

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genetic characteristics of genetic
potentials that represent

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an enormous reserve from which
we can draw to reproduce

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the same adaptations but with

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enormously greater scope and
then tenth out of this potential

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We built our modern crops
like wheat bread for

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high yield and to control
the crops performance.

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We\'ve made it uniform a crop
that\'s lost its flexibility.

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Around it the natural world is constantly

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changing as diseases and
insects evolve new strategies.

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Just warming in the
Saskatchewan Wheat Fields

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one July evening Wallace McPhee and his son

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check their grain for the latest
best to threaten their harvest.

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Some onto the stem for
I\'m not stem last year

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farmers in the area lost $30 million worth
of wheat into via quite a few here tonight.

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Now. This was the culprit.

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The orange wheat blas image.

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You can see the odd one.

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Out here to Web springs
have caused a massive rise

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in numbers and the crop has
no natural resistance.

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70% of the wheat in this
area is a single variety.

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All of it vulnerable to the image.

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Well maybe tomorrow.

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In a crisis.

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This is the farmers only recourse but it\'s

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costly damaging to the environment
and often unsuccessful.

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If the eggs have already
been laid when the crops

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sprayed they\'ll hatch out within the head.

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Larvae suck the juice
from the growing kernel.

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At harvest time that healthy looking
head contains little more than chaff.

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Plant breeding is the long-term solution.

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There\'s are quite high numbers and Dr.

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Tim Right is an agronomist
with agriculture Canada.

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Then you can say the number of message that
are stuck to the sticky tape in this trap.

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These are the images that
have come out of the soil.

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We have had as many as 300
in a three-day period.

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So the population is very high
and if you figure each message

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can lay maybe 40 eggs there\'s a
tremendous potential for damage.

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In this mid infested field Dr.
Wright is growing

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wheat varieties from places
like Turkey China and Europe.

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He\'s looking for natural mid resistance.

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Perhaps a flower the
insect can\'t penetrate.

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Any wheat that survives well in the field
will be used in a government plant

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breeding program to transfer mid
resistance into prairie wheat.

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When two varieties of wheat
or to be crossed one

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is emasculated to make sure
it doesn\'t pollinate itself.

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Each pollen bearing anther
is removed by hand.

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And there may be a 150 in a single head

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The painstaking work of plant
breeding is endless as our crops are

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constantly adjusted to meet the latest
novelty thrown at them by nature.

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The two flowering heads
are bagged together.

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And then with a flick of the
fingers the marriages consummated

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plant breeding has given
us modern agriculture.

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Now high-yielding varieties of

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all major food crops have been developed
and they\'re spreading around the world

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Here in Turkey traditional seeds
are quickly giving way to

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new high-yield wheat bread for
a different kind of farming.

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In many developing countries
the plant breeders

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new varieties have brought
much larger harvests.

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But in other ways this green
revolution has been a very mixed.

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Blessing. A great part of the poorer
of the population is insight.

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In the third world are themselves
farmers or laborers on the land. And

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The welfare of those people depend
rather on the continuation of

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an agriculture that can
provide them with work than

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the development of an agriculture that
can absorb tractors and expel them.

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This has been one of the major effects.

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That\'s the new varieties.

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Whole populations have moved
from the countryside where

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no longer workers available to them to the
cities for work is also not available to them

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And now this ancient fruitful
land is being redesigned.

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18 huge dams on the river Euphrates will
flood more than a 1000 square kilometers.

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Irrigation are vast areas
of mechanized agriculture.

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Power for growing cities.

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Technology alters the face of the
earth to suit a new human purpose.

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But modern agriculture is built on
something far more fragile than this

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On the slopes above the worksite Dr.
Tuna it Kim harvest wheat.

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Some of them wild varieties
of major food crops.

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Barley oats alfalfa will

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never know what genetic potential
will disappear underwater year.

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Nor how it might have helped
to keep our crops healthy.

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The complex community of plants on this
mountainside has evolved over millennia.

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It\'s lost its gone forever.

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In Peru potatoes come in more shapes and
colors than North Americans are used to.

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It\'s because they\'re at home here.

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Peru like Turkey is one
of those rich corners of

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the world where many of our
food plants first evolved.

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Several thousand years
of cultivation here have

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produced a startling demonstration
of nature\'s ingenuity.

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And

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beans

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squash potatoes

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corn tomatoes ancient treasures of
Peru that have enriched the world.

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They come from small farms in the mountain

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side where lifestyle follows
traditional patterns.

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Already. Farmers here must carve their
fields out of a rugged landscape.

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Climate and soil conditions
changed dramatically over

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short distances are using
plants of great diversity.

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Remote areas like this

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The source of genetic raw
material modern crops depend on.

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Dr. Charles Rick is a world
expert on tomato genetics.

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He\'s here with an international
group of breeders looking for

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wild tomato varieties are fantastic species
because it grows such exceedingly DRY place.

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In his lifetime Dr. Rick
has collected most of

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the wild plant genes that built
today\'s processing tomato.

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Or looked at these answering
you know yeah yeah yeah sure.

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Surviving tough conditions.

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The wild tomato

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Genetic strengths vital
to the tomato industry.

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There\'s a great deal of
interest in this for.

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Well not only for drop tolerance
but the sticking foliage

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is entrapped certain insects
like the white fly.

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And it is probably our best source of
resistance to the greenhouse white fly.

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There\'s this this year\'s growth.

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This is the old plan.

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The probably three years
old three or four years.

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This is a one that is
very intact resistance.

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We have yet to find a plant in
the wild which insect damage.

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These insignificant plans
harbored great potential.

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Today Dr. Rick discovers a wild tomato.

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He\'s never seen before.

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For a plant geneticist it\'s an important
moment remarkably similar and fully.

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This is just sort of on the borderline.

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But this is really you really most unusual.

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I think it\'s quite exciting
to find something. Just type.

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Such fines are getting rarer as human
population increases and agriculture expands.

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It\'s not surprising that in many
sites where we had collected

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wild tomato species in the past
going back say for 4050 years.

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They no longer exist.

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They\'ve been they\'ve been eliminated
there there there virtually extinct

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from places

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like the worm coming out.

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He beat me. In the evening

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the seeds are prepared for storage
insurance for the future of our crops.

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I think we have to think in terms of

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the very long range useless material and an
awful lot of that is totally unpredictable.

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Almost certainly the
plant breeders of the of

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the distant future or 5200 years from
now are going to have different needs.

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New problems are going to arise

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Certainly we\'re not going to be
using tomatoes in the same way.

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We\'re not the only growing
on them the same way.

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So the pes or be different than most
certainly need new genes for those purposes.

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Collections like these are stored
in an international network of

00:20:30.860 --> 00:20:36.180
seed banks set up to conserve the
genetic basis of the world\'s food.

00:20:41.230 --> 00:20:47.389
Canada\'s seed bank in Ottawa has
more than 75 thousand seeds samples

00:20:47.390 --> 00:20:50.659
From wild and cultivated plants including

00:20:50.660 --> 00:20:56.010
some major world collections such
as barley oats and rapeseed.

00:20:59.080 --> 00:21:02.794
In two small offices staff catalog

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new acquisitions answer requests for breeding
material and clean the seed for storage.

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Seed is not eternal and
even here it\'s at risk.

00:21:20.570 --> 00:21:28.380
Inadequate storage facilities leave many seeds
prey to heat humidity insects and mice.

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No one knows the full genetic
potential stored here.

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Poor funding means that only basic
maintenance work can be done.

00:21:39.840 --> 00:21:45.099
Regular germination tests check
the seeds continuing viability.

00:21:45.100 --> 00:21:48.309
If the germination rate
drops that sample is

00:21:48.310 --> 00:21:52.970
grown out in the greenhouses for
new supplies a vigorous see.

00:21:57.240 --> 00:22:02.949
Conservation needs time and
money and a new commitment.

00:22:02.950 --> 00:22:05.619
It\'s not just a Canadian problem.

00:22:05.620 --> 00:22:11.930
More seed has been lost in international
seed banks than has been saved.

00:22:12.660 --> 00:22:15.594
It\'s more than a package of seed.

00:22:15.595 --> 00:22:19.059
It\'s a vast treasury of diverse genes a

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priceless asset that lies
curled within each seed.

00:22:30.720 --> 00:22:34.689
Plotted on the spiral strands of DNA are

00:22:34.690 --> 00:22:39.770
the genes that control an endless
variety of specific traits.

00:22:40.110 --> 00:22:47.289
Disease resistance drought or cold tolerance
high yield ability or early ripening.

00:22:47.290 --> 00:22:50.930
Today there are more valuable than ever.

00:22:55.030 --> 00:22:58.609
Plant breeders are finding
ways of breaking into

00:22:58.610 --> 00:23:03.480
that Treasury manipulating
the very blueprint of life.

00:23:12.220 --> 00:23:18.484
Under the microscope to cells stripped
of their cell walls are being fused

00:23:18.485 --> 00:23:24.154
combining their DNA cells
from two different plants.

00:23:24.155 --> 00:23:28.980
Even two different species can
be put together like this.

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With this technique entirely novel

00:23:37.400 --> 00:23:43.519
can be constructed. Already a tomato
potato has been grown in a lab in

00:23:43.520 --> 00:23:46.849
the future we might fertilize itself like

00:23:46.850 --> 00:23:52.290
bean plants or rice might be
as protein rich as soybeans.

00:23:53.080 --> 00:23:56.359
A genetic trait can be transferred

00:23:56.360 --> 00:24:00.364
directly once the genes controlling
it have been identified.

00:24:00.365 --> 00:24:03.619
Chemically stripped out
from one cell\'s DNA.

00:24:03.620 --> 00:24:06.990
They\'re injected into another cell

00:24:09.880 --> 00:24:13.579
When it\'s perfected this could cut years

00:24:13.580 --> 00:24:17.400
from the slow process of
traditional plant breeding.

00:24:19.570 --> 00:24:24.679
Genetic engineering has taken plant
breeding out of university and

00:24:24.680 --> 00:24:29.850
government labs into the competitive
world of private industry.

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Dna plant Technology Corporation is one of

00:24:37.100 --> 00:24:41.494
many new companies redesigning
plants for the food industry.

00:24:41.495 --> 00:24:44.584
Dr. David Evans is a biotechnologist.

00:24:44.585 --> 00:24:48.930
Well I guess our next step is to try to
increase the regeneration frequency.

00:24:53.530 --> 00:24:58.849
Compact. Biotechnology has attracted

00:24:58.850 --> 00:25:02.329
business investment because
it promises such control.

00:25:02.330 --> 00:25:05.719
Each one of these leaf fragments
will become a clone of

00:25:05.720 --> 00:25:10.339
the parent plant hundreds of
genetically identical platelets.

00:25:10.340 --> 00:25:15.810
And every stage of growth is
turned on and off in the lab.

00:25:20.680 --> 00:25:26.134
This is the foundation of a new
and profitable growth industry.

00:25:26.135 --> 00:25:30.900
Cells that can be made
to multiply on command.

00:25:35.860 --> 00:25:41.764
And now living plants like
these can be privately owned.

00:25:41.765 --> 00:25:48.844
Recent laws in many western countries allowing
you varieties to be protected by patent.

00:25:48.845 --> 00:25:53.479
I think what is new and exciting
is that some of these tools

00:25:53.480 --> 00:25:57.589
of biotechnology permit us to
address more intelligently issues

00:25:57.590 --> 00:26:04.009
like nutrition quality of food characteristics
shelf-life considerations things

00:26:04.010 --> 00:26:08.149
which will have a very positive
impact very positive social impact

00:26:08.150 --> 00:26:10.879
on the consumer and the next several years

00:26:10.880 --> 00:26:16.369
I can\'t think of any greater reward than to
actually use a scientific discovery or to

00:26:16.370 --> 00:26:18.439
use a technology such as the tools of

00:26:18.440 --> 00:26:22.099
plant biotechnology that we\'d been
applying to actually find it.

00:26:22.100 --> 00:26:26.869
It makes its way into the daily life of
most of the people in the United States.

00:26:26.870 --> 00:26:30.559
So clearly I would say that
the work that we\'re doing in

00:26:30.560 --> 00:26:35.524
linking signs to business
is extremely rewarding.

00:26:35.525 --> 00:26:43.474
Science and business when the bottom line is
prompted the end result is veggie snacks.

00:26:43.475 --> 00:26:47.479
Dory came to us with packaging
concept and said Make

00:26:47.480 --> 00:26:52.489
a pepper that fits in my package that\'s
nice and sweet and good tasting and

00:26:52.490 --> 00:26:57.589
a hybrid in which people just
loved to eat your snack arm.

00:26:57.590 --> 00:27:01.759
So this is just a foolish generation
or five red purple. Wish it on.

00:27:01.760 --> 00:27:04.924
You have quite a few of these
in a pipeline going to

00:27:04.925 --> 00:27:09.169
pepper so exciting because there\'s
been so little work done with it.

00:27:09.170 --> 00:27:12.739
In a short period of time we\'ve
come quite a long way in developing

00:27:12.740 --> 00:27:16.294
something for with ideal
snack and characteristics.

00:27:16.295 --> 00:27:20.284
I gather from the standpoint of happens.

00:27:20.285 --> 00:27:22.804
That\'s moving forward well.

00:27:22.805 --> 00:27:26.614
And Laura still feel
optimistic kind of up to

00:27:26.615 --> 00:27:31.384
probably around the end of this month to
have our first total reaction to all of the

00:27:31.385 --> 00:27:33.439
The documents there\'s really basically

00:27:33.440 --> 00:27:35.719
nothing controversial in them
in terms of changing any of

00:27:35.720 --> 00:27:37.939
the relationships just tying
things up according to

00:27:37.940 --> 00:27:41.344
the the codes of various states
and things that are involved.

00:27:41.345 --> 00:27:45.289
Once you filling out cause
you still think that we

00:27:45.290 --> 00:27:49.219
can have a shelf price that would
be reasonable to the consumer

00:27:49.220 --> 00:27:52.444
that would be attractive to us
and to our partner there are

00:27:52.445 --> 00:27:57.739
definitely profit potential here
given the cost as we see them today

00:27:57.740 --> 00:28:01.489
now could be enormous for both
our marketing partners as

00:28:01.490 --> 00:28:05.269
well as ourselves right I think
I think that\'s that\'s very

00:28:05.270 --> 00:28:08.074
appropriately is what was being offered is

00:28:08.075 --> 00:28:14.420
a new opportunity and upscale opportunities
learn to enjoy that compose them

00:28:14.940 --> 00:28:20.079
Biotechnology has great
promise but as plant breeding

00:28:20.080 --> 00:28:24.489
moves rapidly from public programs
into private hands projects

00:28:24.490 --> 00:28:28.119
like veggie snags may
become the reality and

00:28:28.120 --> 00:28:34.430
the endless process of maintaining food crops
for human needs will take us second place.

00:28:40.950 --> 00:28:48.110
The processing tomato it\'s been created
for industry by plant breeding.

00:28:55.860 --> 00:29:00.669
Tough skin high yield
simultaneous ripening.

00:29:00.670 --> 00:29:07.460
And now there\'s a new goal increasing the
solids content through biotechnology.

00:29:09.720 --> 00:29:12.639
Competition is fierce.

00:29:12.640 --> 00:29:15.849
Every percentage point of extra solid means

00:29:15.850 --> 00:29:19.284
nearly $80 million for
the processing industry.

00:29:19.285 --> 00:29:21.549
But there\'s always a trade off.

00:29:21.550 --> 00:29:25.809
Already the new tomato has 15% less

00:29:25.810 --> 00:29:31.400
Vitamin C. And it\'s a major source
of the vitamin for North Americans.

00:29:32.820 --> 00:29:37.374
Less nutrition cheaper catch-up.

00:29:37.375 --> 00:29:39.279
Perhaps it\'s worth it.

00:29:39.280 --> 00:29:41.559
But as food plans are redesigned for

00:29:41.560 --> 00:29:47.634
processing and marketing companies these
decisions are made solely on economic grounds.

00:29:47.635 --> 00:29:53.450
It\'s good for business but it may not
be good for the future of our food.

00:30:03.420 --> 00:30:07.524
Si is the end result of plant breeding.

00:30:07.525 --> 00:30:11.919
And recently control of seed
has been changing hands.

00:30:11.920 --> 00:30:15.219
This is currency for farmers
in southern Ontario.

00:30:15.220 --> 00:30:18.369
It\'s produced by pixie a small family owned

00:30:18.370 --> 00:30:22.490
firm that\'s been in the
business for more than 40 years

00:30:31.710 --> 00:30:36.129
Traditionally new seed varieties
have been developed by

00:30:36.130 --> 00:30:40.404
companies like this in response
to the needs of local farmers.

00:30:40.405 --> 00:30:45.080
But today pick seed is a rare survivor.

00:30:50.340 --> 00:30:58.340
Farming is now an international affair and
the seed business is becoming big business.

00:31:00.840 --> 00:31:04.724
For agricultural economist path Mooney

00:31:04.725 --> 00:31:09.034
The new seed merchants are a
matter for urgent concern.

00:31:09.035 --> 00:31:11.374
The real plant breeders today are

00:31:11.375 --> 00:31:15.979
multinational corporations particularly
multinational chemical corporations.

00:31:15.980 --> 00:31:21.664
There have been close to a thousand seed
company takeovers in the last dozen years.

00:31:21.665 --> 00:31:24.049
And which means that basically all of

00:31:24.050 --> 00:31:28.759
the traditional multi-generational
family seed companies that have

00:31:28.760 --> 00:31:30.934
served the market for

00:31:30.935 --> 00:31:35.809
decades and centuries in some cases had been
taken over by these international companies.

00:31:35.810 --> 00:31:37.729
And I think that\'s a
concern that when you have

00:31:37.730 --> 00:31:40.939
that concentration in a few
hands but secondly we should be

00:31:40.940 --> 00:31:42.799
concerned because these companies are

00:31:42.800 --> 00:31:47.089
the pesticide manufacturers
that pesticide that developers

00:31:47.090 --> 00:31:49.084
who are now becoming a plant breeders.

00:31:49.085 --> 00:31:52.669
And it\'s very hard to understand
why it is that a company

00:31:52.670 --> 00:31:56.029
which is bread producing the
herbicides or crop would be

00:31:56.030 --> 00:32:00.514
very concerned about disease resistance
qualities or concerned about

00:32:00.515 --> 00:32:03.949
weed control problems of for
that crop when they can actually

00:32:03.950 --> 00:32:07.980
refer farmers to the chemical on the shelf
rather than doing their own plant breeding.

00:32:08.770 --> 00:32:11.764
Chemicals and agriculture.

00:32:11.765 --> 00:32:13.879
It\'s a growing partnership.

00:32:13.880 --> 00:32:17.194
Seeds are now breadth to
respond to chemicals.

00:32:17.195 --> 00:32:20.010
They need them to perform.

00:32:23.080 --> 00:32:28.980
Rising costs trough the farmer
in the race for higher yield

00:32:33.850 --> 00:32:38.059
This herbicide kills weeds
that compete with growing

00:32:38.060 --> 00:32:42.664
corn but it lingers in the
soil preventing crop rotation.

00:32:42.665 --> 00:32:47.310
Alfalfa and soybeans can\'t
grow where it\'s been sprayed.

00:32:49.600 --> 00:32:53.929
Herbicide companies are currently
spending millions of dollars in

00:32:53.930 --> 00:33:00.390
plant breeding programs trying to develop
herbicide resistant varieties of these crops.

00:33:03.160 --> 00:33:08.794
More herbicide means higher yields
and fatter business profits.

00:33:08.795 --> 00:33:11.599
But already in the American corn belt.

00:33:11.600 --> 00:33:16.380
Quantities of herbicide are
showing up in drinking water.

00:33:20.650 --> 00:33:27.060
Farming has always been a risky
business but help is now at ham.

00:33:28.960 --> 00:33:34.170
There\'s a chemical solution to
most problems in the field.

00:33:35.590 --> 00:33:39.004
For the farmer the message is simple.

00:33:39.005 --> 00:33:45.840
Shell DuPont Roman house and Monsanto
will guard his fields for him.

00:33:47.260 --> 00:33:51.559
They\'ll wrap his defenseless
crop from seed to harvest.

00:33:51.560 --> 00:33:54.124
In a petrochemical shield

00:33:54.125 --> 00:34:02.125
From the hazards of nature
and he can finally relax.

00:34:06.550 --> 00:34:10.804
Wasn\'t that long ago that we actually
were concerned about disease resistance.

00:34:10.805 --> 00:34:15.289
Now is simply to adapt the the
seed to the chemical rather than

00:34:15.290 --> 00:34:19.624
the chemical to the seed and it\'s very
sound corporate reasons to do that.

00:34:19.625 --> 00:34:24.559
The corporate logic is that it\'s faster
to do plant breeding and much much

00:34:24.560 --> 00:34:27.349
cheaper the plant breed
a new variety than it

00:34:27.350 --> 00:34:30.604
is to change your chemical
to change or your pesticide

00:34:30.605 --> 00:34:33.949
So it\'s cheaper for for companies to

00:34:33.950 --> 00:34:38.010
adapt nature to the chemical than
than the chemical to nature.

00:34:40.360 --> 00:34:44.644
That corporate tomato
is the ultimate example

00:34:44.645 --> 00:34:49.054
designed for high yield
uniformity and processing.

00:34:49.055 --> 00:34:52.860
Its performance is controlled by chemicals.

00:34:55.870 --> 00:35:03.529
Under contract to Hynes a 150 hectares of this
farm in Ontario are planted with tomatoes.

00:35:03.530 --> 00:35:05.959
The seedlings come from hind with

00:35:05.960 --> 00:35:11.730
precise specifications of fertilizers
herbicides and pesticides.

00:35:19.390 --> 00:35:23.104
For food companies plant breeding provides

00:35:23.105 --> 00:35:26.644
tight control over the production
and of their operation.

00:35:26.645 --> 00:35:33.840
The food chain is becoming an assembly line
that starts with the C and ends in the cam.

00:35:45.490 --> 00:35:50.719
From tomato juice to the world grain
harvests corporate investment in

00:35:50.720 --> 00:35:55.694
the seed business means mass
production is the only way to go

00:35:55.695 --> 00:35:59.589
The orientation of the companies
is towards the biggest markets.

00:35:59.590 --> 00:36:03.939
In the past we\'ve had
regional seed companies

00:36:03.940 --> 00:36:05.619
that have been concerned
about a regional market and

00:36:05.620 --> 00:36:08.304
developing plant varieties
for that regional market.

00:36:08.305 --> 00:36:09.669
And that\'s made sense.

00:36:09.670 --> 00:36:13.359
They they\'ve they\'ve looked at a
specialty crops and specialty areas.

00:36:13.360 --> 00:36:17.109
Now we have a multi-national company that\'s
looking at a global market so they want

00:36:17.110 --> 00:36:21.309
to deal with wheat and want to
deal with maize sorghum potatoes.

00:36:21.310 --> 00:36:24.159
The major World crops for

00:36:24.160 --> 00:36:29.379
the largest possible zone of breeding
or zone of growing of that variety.

00:36:29.380 --> 00:36:33.099
And what they typically do for the local
areas is adapt that variety somewhat to

00:36:33.100 --> 00:36:34.179
that local area or

00:36:34.180 --> 00:36:38.540
not at all they simply market that
that area whether it\'s adapted or not

00:36:40.900 --> 00:36:46.050
This is the new look of
tomato farming in Peru.

00:36:49.090 --> 00:36:53.449
Hectares of processing tomatoes
developed in Italy and the

00:36:53.450 --> 00:36:58.020
US have replaced the
locally adapted varieties.

00:37:02.530 --> 00:37:06.934
All that genetic diversity
is lost to the crops.

00:37:06.935 --> 00:37:09.300
It helped to create.

00:37:10.540 --> 00:37:18.034
Gilman harvesters work among plants raised
in the family of agricultural chemicals.

00:37:18.035 --> 00:37:20.494
Genetically uniform

00:37:20.495 --> 00:37:23.164
the plants are vulnerable to epidemics.

00:37:23.165 --> 00:37:27.499
This crop is damaged by pin
worm and a virus infection.

00:37:27.500 --> 00:37:30.660
It\'s already been dusted or fungus.

00:37:32.320 --> 00:37:37.770
The billboards are Spanish
but the names are familiar.

00:37:42.670 --> 00:37:49.080
Imported seed means imported
fertilizers and pesticides.

00:37:51.280 --> 00:37:54.604
But the new tomato has caught on here.

00:37:54.605 --> 00:37:59.970
Understandably that farmer is like
it\'s high yield and its durability

00:38:01.930 --> 00:38:05.269
Now the consumers are the ones that must

00:38:05.270 --> 00:38:11.494
adapt today in the market

00:38:11.495 --> 00:38:15.679
where tomatoes ones came in
many shapes colors and flavors.

00:38:15.680 --> 00:38:18.904
Only the processing tomato is for sale.

00:38:18.905 --> 00:38:24.589
Here where the tomato first evolved
the legacy of generations has

00:38:24.590 --> 00:38:32.280
disappeared in 20 years eliminated by
agribusiness and its new international sea

00:38:38.560 --> 00:38:42.379
dropping down into a valley in Ethiopia.

00:38:42.380 --> 00:38:48.244
This helicopter is part of a national effort
to stop the same thing from happening here.

00:38:48.245 --> 00:38:52.050
It\'s delivering wheat
seed to local farmers.

00:38:56.950 --> 00:39:02.644
The mulatto and several years of
drought have devastated Ethiopia.

00:39:02.645 --> 00:39:05.524
Almost 0.5 million people died.

00:39:05.525 --> 00:39:08.344
And these farmers were
forced to eat the seed.

00:39:08.345 --> 00:39:10.950
They\'d saved for planting.

00:39:17.590 --> 00:39:21.259
They desperately need new seed

00:39:21.260 --> 00:39:26.400
but it must be adapted to local
conditions or it won\'t survive.

00:39:30.730 --> 00:39:35.659
In past years imported seed
with its dependence on

00:39:35.660 --> 00:39:41.449
agricultural chemicals has further eroded
Ethiopians ability to feed themselves.

00:39:41.450 --> 00:39:44.010
Now that\'s changing.

00:39:45.610 --> 00:39:48.544
This seed was developed here.

00:39:48.545 --> 00:39:51.319
The beginning of a
government program to build

00:39:51.320 --> 00:39:55.290
long-term independence
for the country\'s food.

00:40:18.280 --> 00:40:21.769
For many families it will be a long walk

00:40:21.770 --> 00:40:26.910
home several days through the
mountains to isolated villages.

00:40:29.470 --> 00:40:32.929
This is one of the planets storehouses of

00:40:32.930 --> 00:40:36.724
plant diversity and it was
badly hit by drought.

00:40:36.725 --> 00:40:39.514
In the deep valleys
collecting the mountains.

00:40:39.515 --> 00:40:45.540
Crops adapted over several thousand
years of cultivation were wiped out

00:40:46.450 --> 00:40:49.564
Lacking his ancestral seed

00:40:49.565 --> 00:40:53.404
the farmer now must try his luck
with the government\'s variety.

00:40:53.405 --> 00:40:55.924
It has more chance than imported the seed.

00:40:55.925 --> 00:40:58.740
And it\'s much better than nothing.

00:40:58.900 --> 00:41:02.824
Lin grows is an agronomist dinning area.

00:41:02.825 --> 00:41:06.994
We would like it to be able to
have seed from her own districts.

00:41:06.995 --> 00:41:10.729
Because there\'s such a great variety
of ecological differences within

00:41:10.730 --> 00:41:12.019
Ethiopia with all the canyons and

00:41:12.020 --> 00:41:14.449
different rainfall patterns
and soil types and so forth.

00:41:14.450 --> 00:41:17.689
But this year and you
just take what you can

00:41:17.690 --> 00:41:21.769
get and we hope that we will be
able to get something out of it.

00:41:21.770 --> 00:41:25.470
And the yonder that point now

00:41:32.460 --> 00:41:40.460
Or that top soil and the treacherous climate
conditions that have shaped all life here.

00:41:42.520 --> 00:41:49.910
Humans animals and plants are bound together
in the difficult business of survival.

00:41:58.740 --> 00:42:03.249
In isolated areas so you lose your
crop and no outside resources and

00:42:03.250 --> 00:42:07.179
so forth the bucket up and no bank
to go to or anything to get yellow.

00:42:07.180 --> 00:42:09.729
Oh it it\'s very very difficult

00:42:09.730 --> 00:42:12.344
on these people but they have
managed somehow to hang on in here

00:42:12.345 --> 00:42:15.369
And so we\'re always I guess we\'re

00:42:15.370 --> 00:42:18.319
always looking for a little bit of hope
that we gotta get it in the ground.

00:42:18.320 --> 00:42:23.929
We\'re hope we\'re gonna get something
out of seeds for the future will

00:42:23.930 --> 00:42:25.459
come from the work going on at

00:42:25.460 --> 00:42:30.600
Ethiopia\'s new seed bank directed by Dr.
Mulago we\'re reading.

00:42:31.420 --> 00:42:37.579
That is a lot of genetic diversity
which has to be concerned and

00:42:37.580 --> 00:42:43.564
used in breeding programs both
nationally and at a global level.

00:42:43.565 --> 00:42:47.389
Primarily of course for the
National breeding programs.

00:42:47.390 --> 00:42:54.604
So aegean bank has to be there to
collect concern and effectively utilize

00:42:54.605 --> 00:43:00.540
up and up and genetic
sources in the country.

00:43:03.700 --> 00:43:10.324
In the past Ethiopian seed has enriched
the seed banks of the Western world\'s.

00:43:10.325 --> 00:43:12.409
Now even in the midst of

00:43:12.410 --> 00:43:18.810
the present post-crisis Ethiopia is
able to conserve its own resources.

00:43:20.710 --> 00:43:26.460
There\'s the heritage of millennia
in every handful of C.

00:43:29.230 --> 00:43:35.250
The seed bank was founded with help
from the German Development Agency.

00:43:36.730 --> 00:43:43.264
Each seed sample has been tested and
catalog a record of astonishing diversity.

00:43:43.265 --> 00:43:47.550
That\'s still only a fraction of
what\'s out there in the countryside.

00:43:56.470 --> 00:44:00.319
Finding and identifying
the genetic resources.

00:44:00.320 --> 00:44:02.824
Here is a huge undertaking.

00:44:02.825 --> 00:44:07.159
But the seed bank has found
a way to speed it up during

00:44:07.160 --> 00:44:13.050
the drought collecting and markets and
villages they ask the farmers for health.

00:44:14.920 --> 00:44:18.829
Intimately connected with
the seeds he relies on.

00:44:18.830 --> 00:44:23.700
The farmer is vital to the
Ethiopian conservation network.

00:44:24.190 --> 00:44:27.979
You ask your 5-mers to
identify a unique types.

00:44:27.980 --> 00:44:33.664
You will do it in no time volume
than we can possibly do it.

00:44:33.665 --> 00:44:36.859
So debt is a lot of advantage.

00:44:36.860 --> 00:44:42.454
We are getting from the participation
of the pharmacy in those fields.

00:44:42.455 --> 00:44:45.184
Seed is life here.

00:44:45.185 --> 00:44:47.734
Husband over generations.

00:44:47.735 --> 00:44:52.530
The seed bank brings hope of
food security for the future

00:44:57.550 --> 00:45:05.524
Basically what we\'re concerned with
is the enrichment of the life of man.

00:45:05.525 --> 00:45:09.739
And that we can do when we have access to

00:45:09.740 --> 00:45:13.699
the total wealth represented by

00:45:13.700 --> 00:45:19.669
the genetic diversity not only of managed
plants and animals but man himself.

00:45:19.670 --> 00:45:24.184
These are enormous untapped
genetic potentials.

00:45:24.185 --> 00:45:31.950
Until the extent that we lose them we lose
an enormous as yet unrealized heritage.

00:45:32.380 --> 00:45:36.544
Far corner of the earth
caught up in crisis.

00:45:36.545 --> 00:45:42.334
People torn by drought and famine
touch the heart of the Western world.

00:45:42.335 --> 00:45:47.220
We rush to help sending food
from our great surplus.

00:45:57.310 --> 00:46:02.164
But this canadian wheat is coming home.

00:46:02.165 --> 00:46:06.949
Long ago many of our major
food crops came from

00:46:06.950 --> 00:46:11.824
Ethiopia carried from hidden
bellies out around the planet.

00:46:11.825 --> 00:46:16.864
Wheat barley flax onions bananas

00:46:16.865 --> 00:46:21.919
coffee gifts from Ethiopia
to the people of the world.

00:46:21.920 --> 00:46:27.244
And Western agriculture still needs the
genetic diversity of food plants here.

00:46:27.245 --> 00:46:32.010
The adaptive bigger that\'s
part of the struggle for life.

00:46:35.170 --> 00:46:39.394
The world is interlocked
in patterns of dependency.

00:46:39.395 --> 00:46:43.204
What we do here affects our own survival.

00:46:43.205 --> 00:46:49.500
What they do for themselves ensures
the future of our food supply.

00:46:53.290 --> 00:46:58.894
Understanding this we see this
moment with quite different eyes

00:46:58.895 --> 00:47:01.939
Famine at the heart of one
of the world\'s centers of

00:47:01.940 --> 00:47:05.239
plant diversity a drought that threatens

00:47:05.240 --> 00:47:12.360
our own fragile harvest. These worms.

00:47:25.900 --> 00:47:33.900
Nature and human nature have been in partnership
for 18 thousand years of agriculture.

00:47:36.490 --> 00:47:40.500
And now we\'re going it alone.

00:47:46.600 --> 00:47:52.519
The power of our technology is a
mess but it can never replace

00:47:52.520 --> 00:47:58.740
the complex evolving community
of life that sustains us all.

00:48:49.420 --> 00:48:57.420
And then to the right